I'm currently writing a book on belief in the afterlife, and came across this wonderful video of a young man recounting his recent near-death experience (of a type) - caused by a heart condition suffered throughout his life - via index cards, accompanied by Gary Jules' lovely rendition of "Mad World". Take a look before reading on:

Such an intriguing story: direct personal experience of something that has led him to an extraordinary belief, which appears to have helped conquer his earlier fears and led him to be sure of a better place beyond death. I immediately resolved to track down the maker of the video, one Ben Breedlove, to talk further with him about his experience and what it meant to him.

But I can't. Because Ben Breedlove died just one week after posting the video on YouTube, on Christmas Day, aged 18. I have to say, this cut me to the bone emotionally. I never knew Ben Breedlove in any sense prior to viewing this video, but his friendly smile, and honesty and willingness to share his strange experience (not an easy thing to do in this cynical world) just made me like him immediately. To just be there, talking about his fear of death and how his recent experience had liberated him, and then almost immediately gone, seemed like a message meant for us all to contemplate. I am so very glad that this experience - no matter what you think of it, reality or hallucination - gave him a personal feeling of peace, and pride in how he had lived his life, before his final encounter with death.

And so beyond that immediate, gut-wrenching moment, what this terrible news brought into sharp relief for me was the simple fact that we are all gifted with something precious: life. Whether you're religious, an atheist, or just of a general spiritual bent, there is far too much to do in our time on this Earth to waste time being negative. Chase your dreams, while appreciating everything you have been given, love and be loved, and perhaps most importantly of all, do good.

I watched the video yesterday from the daily news updates and was so moved I forwarded the link to several friends. Now today to find out he died one week later only makes the story more poignant.

As I recently posted I recently read and am rereading Holographic Universe. I believe his statements about finding himself inside an endless white room looking in a mirror with a rapper playing his song about finding heaven fits perfectly within the concept. Synchronicity is at play with the timing of the lyrics and him promptly waking back into life. The presence of the rapper who presumably is still alive does not in any way undermine the legitimacy of his experience or point to it as fantasy or hallucination, but rather perfectly fits within the framework of a holographic theory or even traditional spiritual theory of an afterlife in that the rapper was merely the form his consciousness chose to interpret the energy there to assist him in this nde, or for that matter the form the angel or spirit chose to represent itself…a familiar form to further underscore the message of the musical lyrics.

If it were merely a last minute attempt by a dying brain to rationalize its demise then the timing of lyrics and his resuscitation are highly coincidental, which is of course what synchronicity is – coincidences with profound meaning, which according to a holographic theory are coordinated by an implicate order aka universal mind aka God.

I for one am a believer and believe he is content and happy and continuing his journey. Clearly he learned lessons in this life and perhaps taught a few in his short but beautiful video effort.

I have gone from being a "believer" to someone who is absolutely certain of life after death. The collective weight of good NDE's coming out now and the better ghost hunting shows causes me to not merely regard these ideas as a matter of faith but of certainty. I also have personally interacted with spirits at my fathers ranch house which was unfortunately cited underneath a grove of historical "hanging trees." Take it from those of us who have been through the wringer - life is everywhere in place and time.